Dear Family and Friends of South Cove Manor:
I am writing today to update all of you on the follow-up COVID-19 testing we conducted last week after one of our staff members tested positive. I’ve provided a bulleted timeline below beginning last Monday, August 10th to recap what was an eventful week here at South Cove:
-
Monday, August 10th: As part of our required surveillance testing, we swabbed a random sample of 30% of our staff members. Those swabs were sent to our lab that evening.
-
Thursday, August 13th 9:00 AM : We received the results of the swabs sent to the lab on Tuesday. One staff member’s test result came back as positive for COVID-19. That staff member was immediately notified, and was sent home from work.
-
Thursday, August 13th 11:00 AM: As per our previously prepared protocol, we began swabbing 100% of our residents, and staff. A total of 270 COVID-19 swabs were sent to our lab that evening.
-
Friday, August 14th, 9:00PM: Test results were received for all 270 swabs sent to out lab. 265 of those swabs were negative, 5 swabs were labeled “unsatisfactory,” which required us to re-swab those staff members.
-
Friday, August 14th: An additional 25 staff members were swabbed, and those tests were sent to our lab that evening.
-
Saturday, August 15th: The 5 staff members whose tests were “unsatisfactory,” were re-swabbed, and those samples were sent to the lab that evening.
-
Sunday, August 16th: All 30 of the pending test results were received. 27 of those results were negative, 3 were deemed “unsatisfactory.” Those 3 staff members will be re-swabbed today.
To summarize, after a very busy week of testing, I am happy to report that there were no additional positive cases identified, after our initial staff member tested positive on Tuesday, August 11th. That staff member remains at home in quarantine, and she continues to show no symptoms. In addition, no other family members that she has come in contact with have experienced symptoms, or tested positive. In following Department of Public Health regulations, we are required to complete testing for 90% of our staff again next week. If those samples come back as negative, we will then revert to testing 30% of our staff every two weeks.
As I had let everyone know last week, we put a temporary hold on our plan to re-open to admissions, family visitations, and the return of outside clinicians in response to our positive test. As of today, we will be lifting that temporary hold on all three of those programs. We also have a plan in place to resume hairdressing services next Tuesday, August 25th.
Thank you again for placing your trust in South Cove Manor.
